Weston Neil Andersen, 93, of East Boothbay, pioneering Maine craftsman and founder of the ceramics business that bore his name, died March 1 at his home.
He was born Jan. 19, 1922 in Primghar, Iowa, to Isoline (Bell) and Arthur Peter Anderson.
An artistic soul in a community of pioneering agriculturalists, he was unsure of how to make a living from his calling. But in his senior year, he read a magazine featuring Donald Dohner, pioneer of a new field called “industrial design”, which combined art and engineering to improve the beauty and utility of products from toasters to locomotives. He became a student of Dohner’s at the Pratt Institute in distant Brooklyn.
World War II interrupted his studies. He served at an Army Air Forces bomb depot in England, using his draftsmen’s skills to create daily charts of the staggering flows of munitions passing through the base. While on leave, he met Brenda Nash at a London ballroom. When air raid sirens sounded, they ignored them to finish their dance and were married a few months later. Their first child was born a year after that, shortly after the atom bombing of Hiroshima. The Japanese surrendered and Weston boarded a ship for New York instead of Okinawa.
He graduated from Pratt and taught at the Akron Art Institute, but the couple wanted to design and produce their own work. Short on capital and with a growing family, in 1952 they bought a home on Southport and took up ceramics because both were affordable. They built what became Andersen Design from their swallow-infested barn, moving to East Boothbay a few years later. Weston designed a new production wing off their Victorian house and, by the 1980s, was overseeing a second facility on the Portland waterfront, over 25 employees, and a high-profile wholesale trade. The Smithsonian’s gift shops ordered Andersen sandpipers by the thousands, and their stoneware pieces appeared in the catalogs of the Museum of Natural History and Mystic Seaport. An Andersen seagull perched on Governor John McKernan’s Blaine House bookcase, while state officials gave other pieces to foreign dignitaries.
Weston continued working into his late 80s. A voracious reader, he also loved jazz and sailing. He was predeceased by his wife of 50 years, Brenda Andersen, who died in 1994.
He is survived by daughters, Karen Andersen Woodard of Wiscasset; Susan Andersen of East Boothbay, Gerda Andersen Dupree and husband David of North Waterford, Elise Andersen of East Boothby, and Christine Andersen Tupper of Damariscotta; son, Iain Andersen of Portland; grandchildren Elizabeth Tupper of Portland and Colin Woodard and wife Sarah of Freeport; and great-grandson, Henry Woodard of Freeport.
The family will hold a Celebration of Life gathering in the spring.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in Weston’s memory may be made to the Community Energy Fund of Lincoln County, P.O. Box 40, Bristol, ME 04539.
Condolences may be shared by visiting www.hallfuneralhomes.com.
